Street Fighter: The Animated Series (Prime Video) 1995 - 1996

Street Fighter was big in the 90s. The games, toys, and then the movie, love it or hate it, all helped propel the franchise to the forefront of pop culture discourse. So it was no surprise that a Saturday morning cartoon was made to capitalize on that property.  

Street Fighter The Animated Series was…..interesting to say the least. It draws elements from both the Americanized lore of the early games, and the Jean Claud Van Damme/ Raul Julia movie, while leaning into the “good guy team vs bad guy team” premise that was popularised in the 80s by the likes of Transformers and G I Joe. 

The series’ opening features a rock guitar rendition of the iconic game theme set to a narration that lays out its simple premise: Colonel William Guile (Michael Donovan) leads a team of elite fighters, each with their own special abilities, to combat the evil forces of Shadaloo led by M Bison (Richard Newman). If you know Saturday morning cartoons, you might already know how this goes. 

It is a relatively formulaic series with animation that’s mediocre at best, highly uneven at worst, to the point where many of its scenes are mocked by the street fighter fanbase to this day. Me though? I quite like it; as a kid I found it entertaining, familiar and I enjoyed it enough to look forward to the next episode. As an adult I can see the ambition behind the flaws, working within studio demands, tight budgets, breakneck turnaround time, and the broadcast standards and limitations of children’s programmes.  

Said ambition showed in the characters. Between the formulaic “foil evil plot of the day” episodes there were the more character focused episodes that elevated the characters beyond one-note cartoon caricatures that they could have been. We delved into their past, their motivations, their flaws and how they eventually overcome them. 

Chun-Li haunted by her father’s death, Blanka grappling with his slowly waning humanity, Ken’s insecurity about always being second to his buddy Ryu, and especially Cammy’s subplot. All little gems that shined among the sand of Saturday morning cartoon formula.  

There were even elements from this cartoon that I dare say I prefer over the official Street Fighter game lore. For starters, having Guile and Chun Li be the most prominent leads of the show. 

In the games, Ryu and Ken are arguably the main faces of the franchise but against M Bison, neither Ryu nor Ken have any personal stake in the conflict. Meanwhile for Guile and Chun Li, their beef with Bison and Shadaloo are definitely personal (killed his partner, killed her father).

 I also preferred how the fighters’ special powers were portrayed here instead of the more popular Street Fighter II: The Animated movie. The movie and other animated Street Fighter projects since then have portrayed the special powers like Hadoukens and sonic booms as powerful blasts of mass destruction that required intense concentration and able to level small structures. 

Here they were more like the game: simple energy projectiles thrown about just by shouting the attack name, and they hit like a strong punch instead of a ballistic missile.

A mostly magnificent voice cast brought the characters to life with many sounding almost like how I imagined they’d sound from the games especially Michael Donovan’s (Conan the Adventurer) Guile, Garry Chalk’s (Beast Wars) Dhalsim and Lisa Ann Beley’s (Gundam Wing) Cammy.

 The ones who stole the show however were Scott McNeil’s (Gundam Wing) Ken, Richard Newman’s (Beast Wars) Bison and Paul Dobson (Ranma 1 1/2) pulling not triple, not quadruple duty, but seven very distinct voices in E Honda, Balrog, Dee Jay, T Hawk, Vega, Fei Long and Birdie. 

Remember I said the cast was mostly magnificent? The only exception would be Tong Lung’s Ryu (pronounced rye-you here instead of the more correct “ree-you”). He always sounded like someone reading the script for the first time and they just went with his first take.

 Different animation studios worked on the first and second season of the series and it shows. The first season had unexceptional but decent animation for a 90s cartoon.  The character designs were less exaggerated than the game, applying a very G I joe Americanized style to characters looks. This means a lower level of detail but more fluid motions, smoother features, light shadows, less emphasis on eyes, and fully drawn lips on the ladies.

 The second season tried a more anime styled aesthetic; sharper stylised features, more detail, more expressive eyes, heavier shadows and more distinct folds on clothes. But a trade off was jankier animation that often felt rigid due to a low frame rate.  

Overall, Street Fighter The Animated series was cheesy decent fun that mostly remained safely within its parameters of an action cartoon for children. The character designs, voice cast, and character-centred episodes were highlights of the show for me. 

The cheesy humour at times fit with being a kids cartoon but the inconsistent animation, and a number of questionable creative choices were definitely cringe worthy. Give it a go, just know what to expect.